Past achievements say the Golden State Warriors will always deserve at least a cursory mention in the NBA championship conversation as long as their core remains intact.
A present look at the league standings, though, shows this squad is nowhere near the championship race.
The Dubs have flashed a sky-high ceiling, but they've had trouble sustaining that success, which they'd obviously need to do in order to win four consecutive playoff series—and perhaps a play-in tournament game or two even before that. What needs to happen for this group to wind up anywhere near its ultimate goal?